Many of us have been eager to find out the SOPs (standard operating procedure) for this Chinese New Year festivity, which is happening next week.
Earlier today (Thursday, 4th February), Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob revealed that this CNY’s SOPs is similar to last year’s Deepavali SOPs.
Here’s the list of CNY 2021 SOPs to take note of:
1. Reunion dinners are only allowed with immediate family members living in the same house. That means no big gatherings or eating outside.
2. House visitations are not allowed.
3. Interstate and interdistrict travel are also not allowed.
4. Rituals or religious activities related to CNY are a no-go. Devotees are required to perform prayers at home.
5. Since there are some areas in Sarawak under CMCO and MCO, the SOP decision will be completely up to the state government.
Naturally, many aren’t happy with the announcement, and took to Facebook to vent. Take a look at what they said:
Ismail Sabri added, “After discussing this and after finding that there were no clusters resulting from these activities, the National Security Council has agreed to allow 3 activities to resume.” The aforementioned 3 business activities are pasar malam, hair salons and car wash services.
- Night markets are allowed to open from 4pm to 10pm. Each stall must be at least one metre apart. It is also compulsory to have different entry and exit.
- Hair salons can operate till 10pm. Only hair cuts are allowed. Facials and other services are not given the green light.
- Likewise, car wash businesses can also open until 10pm.
Update (7th February):
Following the uproar from the public, the new CNY SOPs reads:
1. Families living within 10km of each other are now permitted to gather, without crossing district or state boundaries.
2. Reunion dinners are “allowed” for a maximum of 15 close relatives on 11th February (Thursday).
3. Religious activities at places of worship are given the green light to proceed on 11th, 12th and 19th February.
4. Places of worship are allowed to open for devotees on these 3 days from 6am to 2pm. The number of devotees must not exceed 30 at a time, and they must be wearing face masks and observe physical distancing.
5. Each prayer session must not be more than 30 minutes and must be followed by 30 minutes of sanitisation works before another session starts.
6. Prayers can also be held at house compounds on the midnight of 19th February for the Hokkien New Year.
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Sources: The Star,NST, Malay Mail.
